High hope for Samoa’s National U-16 Men’s Team

Samoa’s National Under 16 Men’s squad was officially announced by Coach Martin Tamasese this afternoon. The team will be representing Samoa in the upcoming OFC U-16 Men’s Championship in Tonga from the 14th – 20th July 2018.

Tamasese shared that his team are well prepared as their team have been training from November 2017. “Our team is well prepared and ready to take on the championship. They boys cannot wait to play. The selected players all play in the premier league division which is the highest level of football in Samoa, he said”

Asked for any challenges he faced while putting together the team, Tamasese stated that “one of the biggest challenges was trying to coordinate the player’s availability for team training and exercises as nearly all of them are in school. Therefore, most will get to the field a bit late when it’s either dark or already dark. To overcome that, we had to put in a request to the Principals to allow the boys to be released early, so that has been great.”

Tamasese further said that they are ready for the big challenge ahead and they are focusing on winning for Samoa. The team has been working hard of their defence because there is a popular football saying which says “a team with a good defence is a winning team”. That is one of their plans for the upcoming tournament.

Tamasese acknowledged the support from the School Principals, the player’s parents, families, clubs and FFS for all the support rendered to the team. The team aims win the Championship for Samoa.

About FFS

Football Federation Samoa (FFS) was founded in 1968. The federation has been through a challenging period in recent years with FIFA setting up a normalisation committee in 2008. A spell of inactivity followed for the next two years as the sport was rebuilt in Samoa but the normalisation period ended at the beginning of 2011 with the election to president of Toetu Petana. Reverend Laupama Solomona is the current President and he is supported in his role by CEO Faumuina Michael Kapisi.